December 2011

“The original iPad is nearly two years old, runs iOS 5 well, and will probably get a few more significant OS upgrades.” (link)

as a way to imply that Apple users are better cared for than Android users.

That might be true, but I disagree with Marco’s “iPad 1 runs well with iOS 5” statement.

I have an iPad 1 and it was snappy and responsive. I enjoyed using it. Note the past tense.

Then I upgraded to iOS 5.

Now apps crash far more often than with iOS 4, and *everything* is slower. The response to touchscreen interaction is so slow that I sometimes can’t tell if the iPad actually registered a touch; one or two seconds will go by and an app doesn’t appear to have seen the touch… and then it finally responds. Apps that never crashed before now crash at least once a day. Even Safari crashes on a daily basis, which you would think wouldn’t happen since that’s Apple’s own app.

As a tech geek you might think that I’m being too picky, and I might agree, except that my wife also agrees. She never complained with iOS4, but after a week with iOS5 she declared that it’s too slow to use. And she’s no cutting-edge speed demon; she’s perfectly happy on her 2006-era laptop.

I tried a couple of resets, reboots, and other potential solutions the Internets suggested, but nothing seems to help.

It looks to me like Apple crammed more functionality into iOS5 than the iPad 1 is able to comfortably handle. And I’m concerned that any further updates will do more of the same.

Just because Apple supports OS updates longer than Google/Samsung/etc. doesn’t mean that their devices are any better supported. Apple seems to have supported iOS5 on the iPad 1 in name only, not in spirit.

In case this helps anyone else on the Internets and Googles out there:

If HipChat refuses to start for you on your Mac like this (“HipChat quit unexpectedly”):

then you might be able to fix it by unchecking “Automatic graphics switching” in the Mac System Preference “Energy Saver” pane.

For some reason Adobe Air (the platform HipChat runs on) doesn’t like it when “Automatic graphics switching” is enabled.

After HipChat is running you can safely re-enable “Automatic graphics switching” to save energy when running on the battery.

Unfortunately right now you’ll have to disable “Automatic graphics switching” *every time* you want to start HipChat. Bummer. The HipChat folks and Adobe are all aware of this issue, hopefully we get a fix soon.